The use of flexible sleeves in the form of woven, braided or knitted webs comprised of monofilament and multifilament yarns for the protection of cables, hoses and the like has become well known in the art. In a typical form of sleeve of this kind, lengthwise extending regions of the sleeving material are provided with interengagable fasteners which are joined together for the purpose of holding the sleeve in its wrap-around configuration. Sleeves manufactured by the Federal-Mogul Systems Protection Group, Inc. are known, which are provided with a multiplicity of hook-and-loop fastener elements arranged in bands which are typically positioned along opposed marginal edges. The hook-type fasteners are formed on woven fabric tapes which are adhesively secured or stitched to the flexible webbing constituting a sleeve. The loop material may also be provided in tape form or may constitute a bulky multifilament fill yarn which has loop-like portions exposed in bands. The filaments of the yarn can be interengaged with the hooks to effect a closure of the sleeve. These sleeves have gained wide acceptance in the art due to their convenience of use, their relatively low cost and because they conveniently allow for cable breakouts at points where an encased cable is required to be connected to a selected instrument or to an item of equipment in a vehicle.
Despite the wide acceptance of the currently available sleeving, a need exists for the application of durable, interengagable hook-and-loop closures in a manner which decreases manufacturing costs and has an equal or superior closure strength as compared to the prior art, having the capability of resisting separation in the absence of the deliberate application of a relatively high separation force.